Personal Narrative: Maple Valley Youth Symphony's Jam Club

Elegant dresses swooshing across the dance floor and the buzz of excited chatter in the distance fill a long white hall. At one end of the elongated room there is a circle in the middle of the dance floor with each person holding the hand of the next. As for me, I’m a part of the circle, my hand being nervously clung to by the girl next to me who is wearing a beautiful deep violet antique dress that matches her glasses. Her eyes are darting around the room full of people, her breathing becoming more erratic. The girl’s name is Mason and she’s a part of Maple Valley Youth Symphony’s Jam Club, a music group for children with special needs. For months the group has been preparing to teach a circle dance at the Symphony’s yearly Gala Ball with

She keeps gripping my hand, squeezing it as she whispers, “I’m not sure that I want to do this anymore.” As soon as she says this my heart drops; Mason had been working so hard on this dance, I knew that I could not let her give up on herself. It was in this moment that I figured out that Mason being able to dance was as important to me as it had been at our last practice, when she had been jumping up and down in excitement for the ball. I knew that this moment, even if it seemed trivial was in fact pivotal and opened my eyes to a new sense of social awareness and empathy for Special Needs children like Mason. So, I turn to her and look her in the eyes and say, “Mason, you can do this, I believe in you. You’ve been doing a great job at practice and look, you’re not alone, all of us are going to help you through this.” I pointed to the others in the circle and smiled asking, “Won’t it be fun?” Mason’s eyes wandered around the circle, seeing numerous reassuring smiles from fellow peers and eventually she beamed back. The music started playing in the distance and we started to dance just like we had practiced, twirling, clapping, and swaying. By the time the dance was over, Mason was grinning from ear to ear, her eyes shining as the audience clapped and came up to join the dance after our demonstration. Mason had overcome her